Successfully running TrueNAS SCALE 24.10 on QNAP TVS-h1688X

TrueNAS General
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Hello everyone,

I’m a newer user of ZFS generally and TrueNAS specifically. I’ve spent the past six months consuming everything I can find on ZFS from the draft copy of the original Sun ZFS-On Disk Specification document, to the FreeBSD internals book, to the OpenZFS Github issue tracker. ZFS has become one of my favorite technologies.

Today I wanted to share my experience and notes on installing TrueNAS SCALE Electric Eel 24.10 on the QNAP TVS-h1688X.

When I was researching this option, several common themes came up with respect to QNAP boxes running a non-QNAP OS, including:

  • Networking issues.

  • Video output/console display issues. Many QNAP boxes seem to have issues getting video out when they’re not running a QNAP OS.

  • Issues with fans either running at 100% or idle, and losing the ability to adjust fan speed automatically.

  • Inconsistent ability to boot into any other OS, or other bootable device, depending on the model.

  • Inconsistent “stickiness” of custom boot order.

  • Inability to use the built in LCD display for some models.

I’m glad to report that I have been running 24.10.x since December 2024 with none of the commonly reported issues above. I’ve installed the two updates released prior to 24.10.2.1 and had no issues with either of those updates.

I took a calculated risk in making this my first TrueNAS and ZFS installation on the back of (the only) two reports I found online of people installing TrueNAS on their TVS-h1688X. One of those reports also cited fan control issues, but I haven’t had any. Both reports I had found suggested that they had originally used the pre-installed QuTS hero OS, and I did not. Here’s what I did:

  • I never once booted into QuTS hero OS, and I left the eDOM in place. No idea if that is relevant to success, but I have no reason to believe that it is.

  • The first environment I booted out of box was MemTest86+ and let it run a full test for about two days straight. Shut down the system when I was satisfied with the results.

  • Instead of using the QuTS hero eDOM to install TrueNAS, I installed a QNAP QM2-2P-344A PCIe card (swapping the position of the pre-installed dual 10G NIC), into which I installed 2x M.2 250GB Samsung 980s (MZ-V8V250B).

  • I booted the TrueNAS installer and installed TrueNAS onto the two 980s in a mirror configuration.

  • Shut down and installed the storage drives.

  • On next boot, I first dropped into the system menu and removed the QNAP eDOM entirely from the boot order, and added the 980s.

  • Shut down and cold boot. Went right into TrueNAS, and then started setting up.

Highlights:

  • Every boot since then has been right into TrueNAS.

  • Networking, including the included dual 10G card, and the 4x built in 2.5G NICs, all work fine.

  • Fans automatically spin up and down based on system load/activity. Temps seem reasonably normal for a Xeon.

  • Display output has no issues.

  • All USB ports work, and at expected protocol level and speed (USB 3.2 Gen 2).

  • With a little bit of system tree analysis and standing on the shoulders of smarter people than I, the LCD panel works at least for information display, and is a fun way to use TrueNAS pre- and post-init scripts. I haven’t tried doing anything the buttons on the LCD. I didn’t use the scripts I linked to, but I copied what I needed to make my own.

So far I haven’t had any issues running with all 12 HDD bays (main pool in RAIDz2 with two spares), 4 SSD bays (mirrored system pool), and 2 onboard NVMe slots (mirrored SLOG) occupied, plus the mirrored boot pool on the PCIe card. The whole thing is 20 drives, with just about 166TB usable capacity combined on the storage and system pools.

I use a few Apps but I don’t use VMs, so I can’t attest to VM use cases.

If anyone has or is considering a TVS-h1688X, I’m happy to answer questions. There doesn’t seem to be much available on the Internet about using it this way.

I’ve been very happy with this hardware. After reading the full manuals for both of the QNAP OSs available for this model (QuTS hero and QTS), I had no interest in either when compared to TrueNAS or plain Debian. Being able to boot into another OS was the only reason I took a chance on this box.

I hope this helps someone out there!

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Great report after you’ve done a lot of work. This is is a master-class in how to document success. Perhaps change the title to add “success” so that people know it is possible escape from QuTS to TrueNAS.

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Thank you so much! I’ve taken your suggestion; good note!

Intel has very recently discontinued the Xeon W-1250 at the heart of the 1688X, so I hope my contribution here comes at a good time for anyone concerned about OS support over the long term, or repurposing their hardware.

While I see value for other use cases and people in the QNAP OSs, I am looking for something a little more transparent in design, open in spirit, and with a community of tinkerers and ZFS lovers. Being at home with Debian doesn’t hurt. TrueNAS really captured me!

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